Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [92]
No sound issued forth from the instrument. Xaran's lips puckered to spit a second seed at Olive. Frantic with terror, Olive blew again into the horn, and a feeble blat sounded in the beholder's face. The noise was nothing compared to the blast Finder had blown, but combined with the magic of the horn, it was more than enough to blow Xaran backward like a soap bubble caught in the wind.
"I did it! I did it!" Olive shouted. In her excitement, she was oblivious to the sagging ceiling over her head.
Finder scrambled to his feet, grabbed up the halfling, and dashed down the tunnel a split second before the ceiling gave way. Farther down the passage, he set Olive down and took his horn back from her. "You could have brought the roof down on yourself and been killed," the bard chided.
"That would've been better than being made immortal the Darkbringer way," Olive retorted. "At least I've sealed the tunnel between us and Xaran. Are you all right? What happened when that thing exploded?" she asked.
"Nothing," Finder said with a shrug. "Either my clothes protected me, or it was a dud. Maybe it was meant to be swallowed for it to work."
"You're sure you're feeling all right?" Olive asked.
"Better than you, I'll bet. How's your shoulder?"
"Lousy. Um, Finder?" Olive said, looking down the corridor with her brow knit in concern.
"Yes, Olive?"
"This tunnel is a dead end."
"It can't be," Finder said spinning around. He walked down the passageway until he could inspect the end with his hands as well as his eyes. He glared at the rock wall before them. There was no way out of the passage. They were sealed in a cul-de-sac.
"This is impossible. I'm sure I heard the wind whistling in this passageway. It has to lead to the outside," the bard growled angrily. He stood very still for a moment. "Listen," he told Olive. "Don't you hear it?"
Olive stood still and listened. Sure enough, there was a whistling noise in the cul-de-sac, and a stream of cold air, too. The halfling held her light stone up high. The passageway ceiling was some twenty feet overhead. The cave must once have been full of water, for breaking through the ceiling was an old well shaft.
Even with the light stone, it was impossible to judge how much higher up the well went.
"It would be a good way out," Olive said. "If we were birds."
*****
Alias awoke in the dawn twilight before sunrise. She hadn't slept well. She had had nightmares about the time Moander had captured her, and all through the dreams, she'd had the feeling that Nameless was in danger, too, though she couldn't say what in the dream made her think so. The sooner she found Grypht and made him tell her what he'd done with Nameless, the better she would feel.
The swordswoman threw off Dragonbait's blanket and cloak and stomped off into the forest. When she returned, she went to her own blanket and cloak at the edge of the clearing and began rolling them into her saddlebags. Dragonbait had left her enchanted chain mail on her saddle, and she slipped into it with righteous indignation. She pulled on a clean tunic and clean socks and her pants and boots. Then she went over to the fire and poured herself a cup of tea from the kettle Dragonbait must have prepared earlier.
Dragonbait signed something to her, but Alias turned away to stand by the fire with her back to him. Breck rose and joined her a few minutes later. His face was scraggly with a day's growth of beard, but he was fully dressed and armed.
He gave the swordswoman an odd look as he poured himself some tea. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Just fine," Alias said. "Why didn't you wake me to take second watch?" she asked.
"Dragonbait offered to take it," Breck said with a shrug. Hastily he added, "I thought we'd break camp at sunrise and start searching in a circular pattern from the place where we lost Grypht's trail. We may as well keep Zhara with us."
Alias nodded. She didn't want to lose any time finding